Implantable medical devices, such as cardiac pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators, and neurostimulators, receive and/or deliver electrical signals to/from portions of the body via sensing and/or stimulating leads. Implantable medical devices typically include a metal housing (e.g. titanium) having a hermetically sealed interior space which isolates the internal circuitry, connections, power sources, and other device components from body fluids. A feedthrough device, or feedthrough, establishes electrical connections between the hermetically sealed interior space and the exterior bodily fluid side of the device.
Handling during manufacturing processes can damage the surfaces of the metal housings. If not addressed, scratches and abrasions to the housing surfaces decrease lubricity of the implantable medical device which can result in damage to bodily tissue during implantation, and which can result in poor housing-tissue interface after implantation. Poor housing tissue-interface can, in-turn, increase interfacial impedance and adversely impact the electrical characteristics of the housing (such as when the housing serves as an anode in unipolar systems, for example). If the damage is severe enough, the housing must be discarded, thereby reducing manufacturing yield.
To address these issues, an intense visual inspection is performed on each housing component throughout the course of the manufacturing process, with damage to the housings being repaired, when possible, through manual buffering and polishing processes. Such techniques are expensive and slow the manufacturing process.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the embodiments of the present disclosure.